1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc changer. Particularly, the invention relates to a disc changer incorporated in a disc drive unit, the disc changer having a disc guiding device structured to expand an opening of a disc discharging guide, provided inside the disc drive unit near a disc insertion/discharge opening, at the time of discharging a disc to the outside of the disc drive unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a cassette tape has been the mainstream medium recorded with music to provide music in a motor vehicle, However, a disc medium such as a compact disc (CD) and a mini disc (MD) is now mainly used in place of the cassette tape. Because the disc medium is thinner than the cassette tape, and particularly because an optical disc like the CD is not in a case, a disc changer that accommodates plural discs in a reproducing unit and reproduces the recorded content by changing the discs is popular. A disc changer is also being developed for a digital versatile disc (DVD) type of optical disc.
This disc changer of optical discs has a disc accommodation section capable of separately accommodating plural discs, one by one, inside a casing. A swing arm takes out a desired one of the discs from this disc accommodation section, and reproduces the content of the disc using an optical head. When the reproduction ends, the swing arm returns the disc to the disc accommodation section. In general, a turntable on which a disc is rotated and a clamper that fixes the disc onto the turntable are provided at the front end of the swing arm. An optical head moves in a radial direction of the optical disk, on a moving path formed on the swing arm, on the disc that rotates on the turntable, thereby reproducing the information recorded on the disc. Generally, the disc changer has the disc accommodation section movably arranged, in the up and down directions, to facilitate the taking out of a desired one disc from the disc accommodation section.
The disc drive unit that incorporates the CD disc changer can accommodate plural discs within the disc changer, and can alternately reproduce the content recorded on each CD. However, in some cases, a disc accommodated in the disc changer needs to be exchanged with a disc provided at the outside of the disc drive unit. To meet this requirement, the disc changer has a function of exchanging a disc accommodated within the disc accommodation section, that is, a disc insertion/discharge mechanism for inserting a disc into and discharging a disc from the disc drive unit respectively.
When a disc is inserted into the disc drive unit from a disc insertion/discharge opening of the disc drive unit by being guided by a roller, the disc insertion/discharge mechanism sends the disc to the disc accommodation section, using a separate insertion mechanism, when the disc reaches a predetermined detection position. On the other hand, in discharging a disc from the disc accommodation section to the outside of the disc drive unit, a pushing mechanism pushes the disc to a discharge position where the disc is to be discharged by a roller. Then, the roller discharges the disc from the disc insertion/discharge opening of the disc drive unit.
An early CD disc changer was large in size, and was accommodated in a trunk of a motor vehicle. However, due to an increasingly compact size of the disc changer in recent years, the disc drive unit that incorporates the disc changer can be accommodated in a center console of an instrument panel of the motor vehicle.
However, as a result of the small disc changer in the disc drive unit, parts within the disc changer have little margin in size. Therefore, at the time of discharging a disc from the disc drive unit, the front end of the disc is fluctuated. This has a risk that the disc is collided against the disc insertion/discharge opening of the disc drive unit, when the pushing mechanism pushes the disc to the position where the disc is to be discharged by a roller and when the roller discharges the disc from the disc insertion/discharge opening.